Crash in the United States: “do you have it on your radar ?”, discover the latest exchanges between the control tower and the helicopter

On Wednesday evening, January 29, an American airliner with 60 passengers on board collided brutally with a military helicopter not far from Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington (United States). Both crashed into the Potomac River, complicating the search. Discover the latest verbal exchanges.

On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, January 30, an American Airlines airliner – flight 5342 – with sixty passengers and four crew members on board collided with a military helicopter – carrying three military personnel – that was conducting training flights. The tragedy occurred near Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, in the United States.

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Before the collision occurred, the crews and the control tower communicated with each other. Air traffic controllers initially spoke to the pilot of the plane, telling him that the latter would be able to land on a shorter runway, according to La Dépêche who relays BFMTV. With his co-pilot, they then indicated that they were going to begin a landing maneuver.

“Control tower, did you see this?”

Just seconds later, air traffic controllers spoke to the crew of the military helicopter, asking if the pilot had a visual on the airliner. “Pat 25, do you have the CRJ (American Airlines flight) on your radar ? Are you passing behind it ?”, the air traffic controllers asked. Seeing the accident in the distance, we can hear the air traffic control agents react: “Oh my God”, they exclaim.

“Control tower, did you see that ?”, asks another pilot, from Delta who was getting ready to take off. “Delta 632, yes sorry, I don't know if you saw what just happened, but there was a collision on approach to 33, we will be suspending all flight operations indefinitely. Return to your gate,” the control tower states. “Yes we saw it all. If you need any information”, the other pilot added.

At the time of writing, Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly explained that he believed there were no survivors from the crash. “At this point, we do not believe there are any survivors from this accident“.